Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-07-26
A LAND OF HOLIDAYS.
How English workingmen Enjoy Respite
from Labor on Derby Day.

There are not many holidays in Eng
land. That is to say, there are not as
many as there are days in the year, or
bristles in a pigs back. But there are
some holidays, just the same. The Brit
ish holiday is a great institution. II ena-
bles the horny handed sons of toll to say
they will not do any work. and that is a
privilege which nc English workingman
ever lets pass unheeded. If the weather
is fine ON his holiday the English work
man goes out into the country, rolls
around on the grass and gets drunk. II
il is rainy, he stays in the city and gets
drunk Just the same. Drink is the n
solid standby of the honest laboring man
over here.
Do YOU think there is money enough in
the world to make the average run OF
people over here really work on Saturday
afternoons or other holidays? don't, at
any rate. | had a shorthand writer
around here for a couple of days last
week. He was all right till the holiday
struck in, and from that moment he was
as lost to me as though he had fallen
overheard in midocean with a 200 pound
shot at his heels. Offers of extra pay
had no weight at all with him, and he
was deaf alike to prayers, entreaties and
sneers. He wanted his holiday, and that
settled il. That is the way it runs, all
along the line. A tailor promised me a
suit of clothes last week. They didn't
come. but the tailor did. He wa full OF
apologies and garlic. He told me lcould
not have my garments for several days.
| asked him why not, and he responded
with tears that it was a race week, and
nothing on earth would induce the men
to work. They had all gone to the races,
he went on, and they probably wouldn't
sober up for at least three or four days to
come.
This passion for racing in England is
the most amazing thing one in
contact with. At the Derby there were
fully a half million people. Two-thirds
Of them, at least, were recruited from the
very lowest class. | suppose at least
5000 men actually walked from London
to EPSON and back, a round distance Of
forty miles, in order TO see the racing, to
which they had barely money enough to
purchase an entrance. Around u coach
as it stood drawn up beside the track
there were always half a dozen wretches
who scrambled on the ground for posses
sion of the chicken bones recently thrown
aside by the members Of our party during
luncheon. The sight would have stirred
ones pity but for the reflection that if
the hungry fellows had remained at home
and fed themselves on the few shillings it
cost them to see the race, there would
not have been the slightest necessity for
their wolf like wrestles for bones and
scraps. What the mining stock craze
used to he in San Francisco, the mania
for racing is in England. Solutions,
cooks, messenger boys, hod carriers, and
everybody else, of high or low degree,
deny themselves the comforts and in
many cases the necessities of life, in order
to have q few shillings on their favorites.
Coming home from EPSON on Derby
day is an experience which as a usual
thing n is not apt to forget. That is
the one day of all the year when the
lower orders are permitted by tacit agree
ment to do about what they like to the
upper orders. The consequence is that
the upper orders have a lively time of 1t.
The men and women who walk along the
roadside, or ride in omnibuses and other
cheap conveyances, are supplied with lit
tie squirt guns and pea shooters, and
they send water and peas with great
fiuency at the persons Of high estate who
occupy the coaches and other vehicles in
dicative Of prosperity. Sometimes, in
deed, they cast handfuls of powdered
ochre all over those whom they are thus
permitted to take liberties with. The re-
suit is apt to be disastrous to good clothes
and tender tempers. The atmosphere Is
thick with dust raised by countless vehi-
cles, and wherever a stream of water
alights there Immediately follows a great
blotch that is neither pretty nor paci-
flying.
s'The best workmen | have in my EN-
ploy," said an extensive manufacturer
the other day, rarely turn up from Sat
urday noon until Wednesday morning.
From that time out they work hard and
long until the next Saturday at noon,
when off they go again for another half
week. Within their working time they
manage to earn enough money to keep
them going three or four days, and dur
ing that period they simply will not be
induced to work. OF course we do have
thrifty, steady workers OH this side Of
the water, but do not think there are
as many Of them as in America. You
are a strictly business nation over there,
while we go in for about SO much play
10 every days work. Much more than
half the poor condition of English work.
ing classes is due solely to the workers
themselves. IL they stuck 10 their tasks
six solid days in the week and took fewer
holidays, as your laborers do in the
United States, they would find it consid.
erably easier TO make ends meet. But
they won't, and that Is the end Of it,"
II is rather a sneer on the part Of
English folks that we Americans are a
''strictly business people, and the feel.
ing extends from the highest TO the low
est classes. The rich poke fun at our
solid men for not enjoying life to a
greater extent, and the working people
think we are not civilized up TO the point
of taking a little play with our labor.
Maybe we are not. But the workingmen
and women Of America live better. have
p~leasanter houses, and find their tables
better supplied and their bodies better
clothed q thousand fold than the beings
who occupy similar walks Of life over
here.-Leander Richardson in New York
Mail and Express.
warming for Glassware,